Apparatus for yarn production



April 18, 1967 E. BOBKOWICZ APPARATUS FOR YARN PRODUCTION 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 20, 1964 T A VF B L M C L D ECTION A A April 18, 1967 E. BOBKOWICZ APPARATUS FOR YARN PRODUCTION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 20, 1964 United States Patent 3,314,223 APPARATUS FOR YARN PRGDUCTION Emilian Bobkowicz, 1155 Dorchester Blvd. W., Suite 905, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Filed Jan. 20, 1964, Ser. No. 338,684 Claims priority, application Canada, Mar. 5, 1963, 879,156 21 Claims. (CI. 5734) The present invention relates to an apparatus adapted to the production of yarns from any type of elongated materials presented, for example in the form of textile fiber strands, tapes, slivers or filaments. The apparatus of this invention is particularly concerned with the making of yarns from textile fibers bonded together to any desired degree by an imparted resinous bonding agent in a continuous automatic sequence of operations from the moment of feed in of the material to be processed into a yarn to the output of the ready yarn package.

The trend in the textile industry is towards automation, increased output speeds and elimination of as many as possible of the numerous processing steps now still needed. Although remarkable progress has been made in recent years in respect to fiber opening through to carding and drafting operations, the spinning process, thus yarn making operations and their complex means, is today basically What it has been since many years. It is an established fact in the art that technical limitaions encountered with conventional ring and pot spindles constitute the bottleneck towards automation. The first is handicapped by the use of rings and travelers, and the latter by utilization of the inadequate, often havoc playing, centrifugal forces in the rotating pot to impart a proper twist. The mechanical features of these spindles do not render them well to automatic dofling since its advisability and possibility has been ignored as a design consideration over the many years of spindle developments. Consequently, any recently developed automatic doffing arrangements had to comprise separate devices adapted to existing types of spindles thus resulting in complex and costly apparatuses the economics, performance and limited application of which are still considered of restricted value.

To date, and to the knowledge of the inventor, there does not now exist a spindle which has been specifically designed right from the beginning for integral individual automatic dofiing and one which would at the same time entirely eliminate the main drawbacks of conventional ring and pot spindles, the said spindle thus making possible higher speeds, better performance and a considerably broader range of applicability with respect to the numerous types of textile fibers and materials suitable for processing into yarn.

This invention relates to such a fully automatic, integrated ringless spindle, the numerous main novel features of which constitute considerable improvements over and above the United States Patent No. 2,900,782 issued Aug. 25, 1959, to Emilian Bobkowicz covering an inverted pot spindle which does not incorporate any of the basic novel features of the present invention, such as among others the application of special air jet assemblies for imparting a positive twist, an inside the pot spindle integrated reciprocal traverse package building device, a built-in pneumatically operated automatic dofiing arrangement, automatic reciprocal package supporting and ejection members as well as a yarn cutting device. For all practical purposes the fully integrated and automatic pot spindle of the present invention constitutes in respecct to its main aspects and due to its novvel basic mechanical features, a novel apparatus over and above the features covered by said United States Patent No. 2,900,782.

35%,223 Patented Apr. 18, 1967 "ice According to the preferred embodiment, the present invention incorporates the following basic devices, coordinated and integrated in one apparatus and comprising: means to deliver the material to be twisted to the twist imparting means, means to apply compressed air at high velocity into twisting means to aid twisting and conveying the twisted yarn to yarn collecting means, means for forming of a proper yarn package inside the yarn collecting means, automatic yarn package dofiing, receiving and ejecting means, means for automatically cutting the yarn before automatic dofiing takes place, means for supporting the yarn during the operation and formation of the yarn package, and driving means for driving the delivery, twisting and yarn collecting means.

More specifically, the yarn making apparatus of the present invention embodies the following main features:

A set of suitable delivery guiding or yarn preforming rolls, preferably provided with a heating device to soften the thermoplastic bonding agent, if and when the latter is imparted to the material to be twisted, while said material passes over or between said delivery rolls, to either heat seal or heat set the twist imparted by the twist imparting assembly.

According to the preferred embodiment, the twist imparting assembly of the present invention comprises a housing enclosing and supporting an inside elongated body revolving at high speed and preferably having a helical or any other suitable bore formed therein to create an off center path for the material passing therethrough, to create a throw and thereby impart a positive twist to the material. It is an essential feature of this aspect of the invention that a continuous flow of compressed air is generated through said bore while the elongated body is rotated and while the material to be twisted is passing therethrough. -By generating a suficiently high velocity of air flow within said oif center bore, suction, and drag forces are exerted on the material so that the material is continuously urged along the desired path of travel, Also, the passage of the material through the confined, extended off center bore serves to create an adequate frictional grip and to exert an off center throw on the material not only to impart to it a positive twist but also, because of the confinement within the smooth bore, to promote thereby the formation of a positively twisted, even and smooth yarn. The air current also promotes the coagulation of the previously heat softened thermoplastic agent in the material in its twisted form, stabilizing its final shape which was obtained while passing through the off center bore in the form of a balanced yarn with a neat set or heat sealed twist, depending upon the degree of heat applied to the material while it passed over the aforementioned delivery rolls. The

housing surrounding and supporting said twist imparting elongated body is preferably also utilized as an air cham ber of continuously supplied into it compressed air from a central supply source. From this air chamber, the air flow is preferably induced through suitably designed orifices through the elongated member into the material path in the elongated revolving twisting member to also ensure the uninterrupted travel of the yarn through said twisting device, as well as through the entire pot spindle, until it reaches the pot and is collected and formed into a yarn package.

It is an essential feature of this aspect of the present invention that the twist is imparted to the material with the aid of compressed air, injected into the twist imparting assembly by means of high velocity air jets, and the thereby resulting frictional drag forces on the material as well as the centrifugal forces present, by forcing the material to be twisted in an off center movement through a suitably formed congested off center path in the elongated body while the latter revolves at high speed, all

of which thus makes it possible to impart a positive twist without the necessity of employing any of the complex conventional twisting means, such as the ring and traveler type or the inadequate centrifugal forces of hitherto known conventional pot spindles. The adjustable to needs air pressure and air velocity provides convenient elastic non-mechanical grip means to properly control the drag and tension applied to the yarn during twisting, which will considerably reduce yarn breakages and increase the range of materials suitable to be economically formed into yarns, even from materials the physical properties of which, particularly in respect to inadequate fiber strength or length, do not render them well to economic processing into suitable yarns by conventional yarn making means.

A further advantage of this twisting arrangement is that when yarns are made with a heat set or heat sealed twist, it will result in the production of balanced yarn which will not contain the inherent tendency of conventional yarns to untwist due to the working of counter twist forces, which in weaving result in the kinking of the yarn and which in dry pot spinning result in the collapse of the yarn package when the untwisting forces in a conventional yarn exceed the centrifugal forces, what phenomenon is a serious drawback and application limiting factor of dry pot spinning, in addition to the fluctuating and rather inadequate centrifugal forces to impart an even and positive twist by centrifugal forces alone.

A further embodiment of the present invention is the utilization of an inverted pot spindle to act solely as collecting means of the already positively twisted balanced yarn, obtained by the before mentioned'twisting member, which according to the present invention is directly mounted over said yarn collecting pot spindle in such manner that both the twisting member and pot spindle comprise a coordinated assembly, integrated in such manner that each component can be driven by separate driving means at the same or different speeds, preferably from one driving center. Such an arrangement makes it possible, whenever needed, to drive the rather small and compact elongated body at much higher speeds than the yarn collecting pot spindle itself, enabling the production of textured yarn or stretch yarn in one continuous operation on one and the same apparatus; in conventional textured or stretch yarn production two distinct and dilferent apparatuses and numerous operations are required to achieve the same or similar results. Such yarns have to be of or contain a thermoplastic material and the initially imparted higher twist is heat set before it reaches the yarn collecting pot, which although revolving in the same direction may run at any desired slower speed to thereby remove any desired amount of the heat set twist from said yarn, and at this stage formed into a yarn package. For the purpose of heat setting the twist, the apparatus of the present invention incorporates delivery rolls equipped with any suitable heating arrangement.

It is a well established fact in the art that in conventional pot spinning, particularly in dry pot spinning, only about one third /3) of the inside pot diameter can be utilized to form a yarn package without having the latter collapsed, even while the pot is still revolving, because the countertwist forces of the unbalanced yarn at this point usually start to exceed the centrifugal forces inside the pot which is used to impart the twist and to form the package. This is not the case in the present invention where the pot is only used as the collecting means of a balanced already previously positively twisted yarn, what enables the utilization of the inside pot space for yarn collection to about three quarters 74) of its capacity Without collapsing of the yarn package, even while the pot is stopped for dotting and besides even without the necessity of inserting of any type of spool or bobbin cone.

All the above serious drawbacks of conventional pct spinning, preventing their application in dry spinning, have been entirely eliminated by the present invention.

For most cotton, man-made and the like soft fibers, the pure air jet twister, according to the present invention, will in most cases suffice to impart a satisfactory positive twist, and in addition the said air jet twister may advantageously be modified for more positive and greater force requiring twist imparting in stiffer materials such as 21.0. bast and hard fibers. According to a further embodiment of the present invention the said pure air jet twisting means may be modified by utilizing an elongated tubular body with a venturi shaped inside path in the upper wider section of which two rolls are mounted, one above the other, the axes of both of which lie in a common vertical plane, and of which the upper roll is preferably an idler roll which can be biased to ensure that the surface of the opposed lower roll is in firmly gripping contact with the former, the axis of the lower roll being mounted in the wall of the surrounding it hollow elongated body, onto the outside the body extended axis ends of which two pinion bevel gears are mounted, one keyed onto the axis and the other used as an idler for better balance and smoother performance, or alternately the latter can be substituted by a suitable counter weight. The lower section of the hollow elongated body is journaled through and mounted for free rotation into a hollow extended shaft of a crown bevel gear which teeth engage the teeth of said pinion bevel gears, both so assembled and mounted in the surrounding and supporting it same housing, as in the before mentioned pure air jet twister, also utilized as a chamber for compressed air induced by suitably formed orifices into the hollow path of tie elongated body to provide in this twister assembly as well the adequate air drag, suction, cleaning, cooling and yarn conveying forces in addition to the mechanical gripping forces of the two rolls incorporated inside said elongated body which by their axial rotation are adapted to positively grip, draw and forward the material passing the nip thereof and to impart by the simultaneous transaxial rotation of the whole elongated body a desired positive twist to the material which is passing through the elongated body which is driven by a pulley mounted to its lower end journaled through said crown bevel gear, to the extended shaft of which another pulley is mounted to drive the latter. The possibility by this arrangement to differentiate the speeds of said crown bevel gear and the elongated body provides the means for adjustable axial rotation of the embodied rolls and transaxial rotation of the whole elongated body assembly for adjustable twist imparting.

This alternative air jet twisting arrangement may also find application in the production of yarns where the drawing out of the material, while still plastic, between the positively driven heated delivery rolls and said twist imparting assembly, while the twist is imparted, would be advantageous for better fiber alignment and harder twist.

Due to the high speeds possible wtih either of said twist imparting members, this invention also embodies an alternative air supply by generation of its own adequate high velocity flow of air without the use of an outside air supply source, by the provision on top of the elongated body of a suitably shaped fan member.

It was mentioned above, that in the present invention the ready twisted yarn by forementioned air jet twister assembly is collected in a rotating pot. When building up a yarn package in a rotating collecting pot it is necessary to arrange that the point of introduction of the yarn into the pot is continuously reciprocated along the axis of the pot in order that a traverse yarn layer build up of the package may be systematically formed over the whole inner surface of the pot. In the past, this has been customarily achieved by means of a yarn carrier extending into the pot and reciprocated by means of a traversing member located externally of the spinning apparatus.

With this arrangement it has been necessary to provide some form of interconnection between the yarn carrying member and the traversing member and the mechanical frame linkages associated with such interconnection have presented a formidable obstacle to any logical approach to the problem of how to achieve automatic or even semi-automatic dofiing of the yarn package from the pot.

According to the present invention, it has proved possible to achieve substantially simpler operation by resorting to the use of a hollow traversing member, arranged with its longitudinal axis co-linear within the cylindrical axis of the collecting pot.

Thus, the invention provides apparatus for collecting ready twisted yarn, comprising a rotatably mounted inverted pot having a substantially circular top with an annular wall depending from said top, said pot having an aperture located centrally in said top for feeding of yarn downwardly into the pot and a first tubular member extending upwardly from said pot, the latter constituting an extended hollow shaft connected to the pot for rotation therewith, means for rotating said first tubular member, a second tubular member arranged concentrically within said first tubular member, means for rotating said second tubular member at a different speed from that of said first tubular member with its pot, a hollow traversing member mounted for simultaneous rotation and reciprocation within said second tubular member, means for compelling said traversing member to rotate at the same speed as the first tubular member with its pot and means interconnecting said traversing member with the said second tubular member in such a manner as to cause reciprocation of said traversing member relative to both of said first and second tubular members.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the hollow traversing member is provided with a longitudinally extending groove within which is engaged a key extending from said first tubular member, whereby the traversing member is caused to rotate at the same speed as said first tubular member. In this embodiment the traversing member is also provided with a continuous, double helical thread within which is engaged a sliding key extending from said second tubular member rotating at a different speed than the said first tubular member, whereby the traversing member is caused to reciprocate relative to both of the first and second tubular members.

Alternatively, the same reciprocating motion may be achieved by having a key extended from the second tubular member engaged within the longitudinal groove of the traversing member and a second key extending from the first tubular member engaged Within the helical groove in the traversing member.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention a third tubular member connected With said second tubular member, revolving at the same speed, is journaled through the hollow traversing member, serving as a yarn carrier through the hollow traversing member to prevent undesirable distortion of the yarn flow which is possible if the yarn is in direct contact with the reciprocating package building u member, as is the case in the absence of said third tubular member.

It will be appreciated that these aspects of the present invention are applicable to conventional apparatus making use of an inverted pot which is used to simultaneously impart a twist and collect the yarn.

One problem dealt with by the present invention is that of automatic doffing, thus ejection of a yarn package from the pot. The yarn package formed while the pot is rotating at high speed is compacted due to the centrifugal forces acting and adheres strongly to the walls of the pot, which adherence is increased when the yarn contains a thermoplastic agent which may in many instances still retain a slight tackiness, depending upon the type of thermo plastic agent used and its degree of coagulation when the yarn reaches the pot. Although all this results in the formation of a very compact yarn package of balanced yarn, which after dofiin-g not only will not collapse but in most cases will even eliminate costly rewinding operations, it will however require the application of a positive force to break the adhesion between the package and the wall of the pot to eject the package. The achievement of such ejection in a speedy and reliable manner is one of the key factors bearing on the success or failure of any attempt to devise a system of automatically dofiing the yarn packages. A further important factor in automatic dofiing is the unhindered accessibility to the yarn package by any mechanical means, what is not the case in any of the conventional ring nor pot spindles. For these forementioned reasons, hitherto efforts to devise automatic dofiing systems have resulted in unreliable or highly complicated apparatuses and it is an object of this invention to provide unhindered accessibility to the yarn package and to provide means which are both simple and reliable, for the efiective ejection of the yarn packages.

With arrangement of the traverse package building member inside the tubular shaft of a pendant pot, as described above, unhindered access to automatic package removal devices has been achieved, what constitutes an important feature of the present invention. With said traverse package building member out of the way, it has been found that ejection of a yarn package from a pendant pot, ie one with an open bottom or a bottom which is covered during rotation of the pot by a removable base plate, can be readily achieved by utilizing a ot having a plurality of ports in the circular top thereof, providing a housing extending above and about said pot, a flexible annular diaphragm secured to the housing and overlying the periphery of the circular top of the pot, this diaphragm being normally out of contact with the pot, and providing means for introducing compresed gas, normally air, between the housing and the pot, thereby deforming the diaphragm so that it is pushed downwardly into contact with the upper face of the circular top of the pot to form a sealed chamber from which compressed air can only escape by way of the ports in the circular top of the pot. Since these ports communicate With the interior of the pot and on the inside are covered by the yarn package ready for dofiing, pressure is exerted upon the upper surface of the yarn package in the pot, directly or indirectly, and in a preferred arrangement upon another rigid diaphragm mounted on the inside and attached to the upper part of the pot by means of an expandable spring, thereby creating an air chamber above said second diaphragm inside the pot, in which the compressed air built up shortly before dofiing will exert an even downward force upon the whole upper surface of the yarn package by means of said second rigid diaphragm and in conjunction with the force of gravity the yarn package will be expelled from the pot. The inside walls of the pot having a slightly conical downwards extending shape will enable the compressed air to escape, when due to its downward movement said sec-0nd diaphragm will lose its contact with the inside pot walls in consequence of which the spring expanded earlier by air pressure on said diaphragm will now retract and return the second diaphragm to its original position, immediately after the yarn package has been ejected.

It is an established fact that the yarn package build up inside an inverted pot spindle does not need to be supported by a bottom to prevent the drop out of the ready or still incomplete yarn package when the pot is utilized during rotation or even when stopped, what is the case with present invention for collecting of ready twisted balanced yarn with or without a heat set twist. It is however advisable to have the pot covered by a removable light weight base plate to ensure an even build up of the yarn package at its bottom.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, such support can be provided by means of a detachable first base plate, preferably of a resilient light weight material suitable to be positioned into the pot bottom by any adequate press fit arrangement to enable it to revolve with the pot without any additional support from below. Said removable first base plate rests before start up of the pot twister on a supporting it second rigid base plate mounted below the pot onto a reciprocable preferably hydraulically operated plunger which at start up is designed to lift and insert the first plate into the open end of the inverted pot after which the second plate retracts alone to its lowest position from which it is moved up again by any suitable automatic timing device when the yarn package is ready for doifing to receive the latter with its supporting first plate after both are ejected by the previously described air doffing operation. According to this invention the first detachable package supporting plate has a center hole and the second plate has in its center 21 preferably circular sharp cutting member which, through the opening of the first plate comes into contact, when the second plate reaches the upper dofling position, with the traverse yarn conveying and package building member, for severing the yarn immediately prior to the automatic ejection of the package from the pot, what is imperative before doffing can take place. In this manner it is feasible to sever the yarn adjacent the yarn package to be dotfed, thereby leaving a free end of yarn inside the collecting pot and eliminating the need for re-threading of yarn prior to formation of a new yarn package when the second plate with its first plate and yarn package reaches its lowest position, a mounted to the frame automatic package ejection member pushes the yarn package from the first plate onto the slightly sloped side plate along both sides of the multi-unit spinning frame, referred to thereafter, to enable the start of another cycle by the second plate which again inserts the first plate into the pendant pot as previously described. The second plate is preferably mounted to the supporting it reciprocable plunger in such manner as to enable it to revolve freely with the pendant pot during the short contact during the described dofiing operations, what makes it possible to insert the first plate or to receive the first plate with the ready yarn package on the fly, thus when the pot is still revolving slightly, hence facilitating a more positive severing of the yarn by the cutting member and also reducing the time elapsed during the dofiing cycle. If and when necessary or desired, the above arrangement also enables the insertion of a conical yarn supporting spool into the yarn package while the latter is still on the fly, said spool being deposited on the second plate prior to doffing and subsequently inserted by it into the ready yarn package through the hole in the first plate.

The present invention also relates to a spinning frame comprising a plurality of twister apparatuses, according to the invention, which incorporates suitable slitting means to make it possible to process continuous tapes of laminated textile fibers in a continuous automatic sequence of operations on said spinning frame from tape to ready packages of yarn by first feeding said tape into the slitter, by slitting the tape into a plurality of narrow continuous ribbonifilaments, by guiding said ribbons to the delivery rolls, by heat softening the imparted thermoplastic bonding agent, by then subjecting said ribbons to twisting operations, by collecting the ready yarn into large yarn cakes and by automatically dofiing said yarn packages enabling the start of another yarn making cycle from said textile filament tapes.

The invention will be described for the sake of illustration only and without limitation with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an apparatus for forming and collecting yarns,

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a modification of the apparatus of FIG. 1

:FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional View of a modification of the apparatus of FIG. 1

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of apparatus comprising a plurality of yarn-forming and collecting apparatuses of the type shown in FIG. 1.

The apparatus of FIG. 1 can be subdivided for the purposes of description into five major sections as indicated by the letters A, B, C, D, and E, which appear at the left hand side of FIG. 1. As will be seen from FIG. 1 there is some physical overlapping between some of the sections such as for instance between sections C and D but functionally all the sections can readily be differentiated. Section A comprises an assembly for receiving of the material which is to be formed into yarns by having twist imparted thereto and for feeding said material downwardly into the apparatus, if desired after a heat treatment to be described hereafter. Section 3 comprises an assembly which serves to impart a twist into the material passing therethrough which for this purpose is provided with its own driving means. Section C cornprises an assembly which is provided with driving means of the yarn collecting means and which imparts a traversing member and means for its reciprocating movement adapted to lay down the finished yarn in the form of a package. Section D comprises an assembly for collecting and means for dotting of such a yarn package from the collecting means. Section E comprises an assembly for aiding of the dofiing of the package and ejecting it after dofiing.

Section A will first be described, with reference to the upper portion of PEG. 1.

The material receiving and delivery assembly comprises .roll .1 and roll 2 preferably mounted vertically one on top of the other. One of said rolls is preferably positively driven, the other being an idler biased towards the driven roll. This material receiving and delivery assembly may be provided with a suitable heating arrangement 3, as for instance mounted in the center of roll 1, and a yarn guide 4.

Section B comprises the housing 5 made up of the upper and lower halves forming a closed chamber and mounted to supporting frame 13, said housing 5 containing a rotatably mounted twist imparting assembly comprising tubular elongated body 7 containing elongated cylindrical insert 6 provided with oif center bore 12 constituting a material entrance port extended to form a helical path 12 into which through orifices 8, 9, .10 and ill preferably compressed air is injected by air supply duct 17 via air chamber 14 provided for within frame 18 and through air orifice 13 into the air chamber formed by housing 5 surrounding the rotatable tubular body 7 .which lower part journaled through the lower half of housing 5 is provided with pulley 15 driven by belt (15 from any suitable central driving source. The helical path 12, the tubular body 7 and insert 6 form at their lower part a venturi for the purpose of increasing suction forces within the helical path 12.

While passing through the helical path 12 the material to be twisted is subjected to an off center throw to frictional forces against the Walls of the helical bore and to tractive forces exerted thereon by the air injected into the path 12 as above described. Due to the effect of these forces the material passing through the bore -12 has a positive twist imparted to it. The elongated tubular body 7 has its lower section V-shaped to enable its close mounting to third tubular member 23 through which the twisted material passes into the yarn collecting pot 33.

Section C comprises first tubular member 21 which constitutes the extended tubular shaft of the inverted yarn collecting pot 3t} mounted in frame 18 and said member 21 provided for rotation with pulley 25 driven by belt 26 from a central drive (not shown). First tubular member 21 contains second tubular member 22 provided at its upper part with pulley 1% driven by belt 26 and its lower part with key 23 engaging a double helical groove 29 of a tubular traversing member 24 hav- 9 ing on its outer surface a longitudinally extending linear slot 2A for sliding on key 27 affixed to first tubular member 21. A third tubular member 23 journaled through traversing member 24 is mounted at its upper portion to second tubular member 22 for rotation therewith.

By differentiation of the speed of pulleys 19 and 25 key 27 revolves the tubular traversing member 24 at the same speed as shaft 21 of pot 30 whereas tubular member 22 with the secured to it key 2 8 engaging the double helical groove 29 in traversing member 24 is forced to revolve at a different speed what results in a reciprocating movement upwardly and downwardly of the traversing member 24 into and out of the yarn collecting pot 3t) enabling the traverse build up of a package 37 of yarn passing through tubular member 23 and the traversing member 24 on the inner walls of the yarn col- 'lecting pot 39 due to centrifugal forces to which the yarn entering pot 30 is subjected.

Section D of the apparatus comprises a yarn collecting pot 39 which is of an inverted dished shape and within which a yarn package 37 is "built up. The upwardly extending tubular shaft member 21 of the pot 39 is rotatably mounted in frame 18 resting upon base frame 39. The lower section of frame 13 forms a housing 40 which includes an annular stepped portion which serves to provide an air chamber 32. An annular diaphragm, 36 which is made of a resilient material such as synthetic rubber, is mounted below the air chamber 32 to the housing 41). The inner edge of the diaphragm 36 projects above the upper surface of pot 3t} wherein a plurality of ports 47 and 31 are provided. Inside pot 3t) a rigid diaphragm 34 is secured to its upper portion by an expandable spring 35 positioned around the inside of the pot 39 extending portion 49 of shaft 21 along which rigid diaphragm 34 is arranged to slide in its reciprocal movement. By extending the outer edge of diaphragm 34 to the inside upper walls of pot 3d the air chamber 33 is formed.

During the build up of the yarn package inside the collecting pot 30 the annular diaphragm 36 remains in the position shown in FIG. 1, out of contact with the upper surface of pot 39, and it does not impede the rotation of the pot 30. When a yarn package 37 has been formed within the pot 39 and it is desired to doff the package 37, the drive to the pot is first switched off. Compressed air is then introduced by air supply duct 17 into air chamber 32 through an inlet in housing 4% As the pressure rises within chamber 32, the annular diaphragm 36 is caused to deform downwardly until it contacts the upper surface of the pot 3! The chamber 32 is then sealed so that the only available outlet of air is by way of the ports 31 and 4-7 into air chamber 33. Accordingly the upper surface of diaphragm 3-4- is subject to downward force transferred to the upper surface of yarn package 37. This pressure added to the natural tendency of the yarn package 37 to fall downwardly from the pot under its own weight i sufficient to effect doffing of the yarn package 37 from the pot 3'3 even in the case of a package formed from a material which tends to stick to the walls of the pot. When the diaphragm 34 will during its downward movement lose contact with inside walls of pot 35) which have a slight outwardly conical shape the compressed air from chamber 33 and 32 will escape and thus result in automatic eturning of diaphragm 36 to its original position and by retraction of during dor'iing extended spring 35 also of diaphragm 34 to its normal pre-doffing position. This arrangement enables the exact control of the stroke of the doffing action of diaphragm 34-. It can readily be arranged that the switching off of the pot drive simultaneously actuates the introduction of compressed air through the inlets 47 and 31.

Pot 39 has a removable annular pot bottom 38 which has a central hole which enables unrestricted free outflow of the air injected into the apparatus during its operation as previously described and provides an opening in the bottom for cutting off action of the yarn as described hereinafter. The purpose of the pot bottom 38 is to support and aid an even build up of the yarn package 37 at its bottom. The pot bottom 38 is preferably formed of a plastic or other resilient light-weight material and has an outside rim 48 which springs into a corresponding annular groove inside at the bottom of the walls of pot 3h. The degree of force required to insert or ex el the pot bottom 38 from the pot 35 is relatively small and does not present a serious obstacle to the dofiing of the package 37 in the manner described above.

Section E comprises a plate 45 mounted to the supporting frame 39 and which serves to carry preferably any conventional suitable pneumatic cylinder 44 and which is extended outside the apparatus to receive the yarn package 37 after dofiing and its ejection from the apparatus by a preferably electrically operated solenoid 46.

To the upper section of the plunger of the pneumatic cylinder 44 a preferably annular cutter 42 is affixed and below said cutter 42 an annular plate 43 connected with another annular plate 3-1 is rotatably mounted which all means are upwardly and downwardly movable with the plunger of the pneumatic cylinder 44.

Plate 41 is shaped to fit into the annular cavity of the removable pot bottom plate 38 so as to enable to carry and press bottom plate 38 into operating position into the inverted pot 39 respectively to receive and support said bottom plate 38 with the yarn package 37 when supporting plates 43 and 41 have been brought into dofling position by the uppermost position of the plunger of the pneumatic cylinder 44 at which position contact is established between the traversing member 24 when it reaches its lowest position with the cutter 42 what serves to cut or sever the yarn extending from the traversing member 24 and the yarn package 37 so that doihng of the yarn package is made possible. It will be appreciated the rotary mounted plates 41 and 43 make it possible to insert pot bottom 33 into operating position while the pot has already started to revolve at the beginning of a new cycle and to perform the above described dolfing operations of the ready yarn package while the pot is still on the fiy before the braking action has brought it to a complete stop. These possibilities will considerably reduce the stoppage time between production cycles and facilitate greatly the positive yarn severing action at dofl ing. Instead of two parts, plates 41 and 43 may comprise one plate.

When at dotting time the plunger of the pneumatic cylinder 44 has brought plates 43, 41 and 3-8 together with yarn package 37 into its lowest position it can be easily arranged to activate the plunger of solenoid 46 to push yarn package 37 out from below the inverted pot 30 onto the outside slightly sloped extension of plate 45 what will make it possible to start a new production cycle.

It will be appreciated that the timing of all of the functions of the apparatus according to FIG. 1 can be preset for complete coordination that will result in a fully automatic operation from material feed in through twisting, yarn collecting and dofiing until the final ejection of a ready yarn package.

It was mentioned above that in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 the arrangement is such that the pulley 15 driving the elongated twist imparting member 7 can be rotated at a much higher speed than pulley 25 rotating the yarn collecting pot 3t) so that pot 3% can rotate at a slower speed than the twist imparting member 7. As a result of this adjustable speed relationship a desired amount of twist imparted by said twist imparting member 7 can be removed While the twisted material is collected in pot 30. When the material being twisted is of or contains thermoplastic fibers or a thermoplastic resin the it i twist imparted by the twist imparting member7 can be heat set due to the coagulation action of the air flow if the material prior to the feeding into the twist imparting member 7 has been subject to heat to soften the thermoplastic material by the use of any suitable heating arrangement such as for instance shown in FIG. 1 where the heating unit is placed inside the delivery roll 1 over which the material has to pass and at which nip of roll 1 and 2 the actual twist starts when it is imparted to the material by the revolving twisting member 7 as previously described. Any desired amount of such heat set twist can be taken out of the yarn during its collection in pot 30 since it can be arranged to have the pot St) to rotate at any desired degree slower than the twist imparting member 7. However, when the yarn is removed from the pot 30 and processed into a fabric it will tend to regain the amount of heat set twist per inch taken out during yarn collection in the pot. Accordingly the fabric made of such yarns will have imparted permanent stretch properties. Yarns of such properties are called in the art stretch or textured yarns. Accordingly, by operating in the manner described the apparatus of this invention is adapted to produce stretch or textured yarn in a single continuous operation on one apparatus as per FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 shows a modification of the apparatus of FIG. 1. In this modification the two halves of housing 50 contain a modified elongated body at which top fan blades 55 are mounted which rotate with the elongated body to draw in air into the air chamber formed by housing 50 through ports 56 in the top of the housing 50 to compress the air by the high speed revolution of the fan blades 55 and to force the air through orifices 52 and 53 into the helical path 51 to impart a twist into the passing through it material and to force it downwardly in the same manner as previously described in respect to FIG. 1. It will be appreciated that in this modified twist imparting member no outside air supply means from a central source are required. Otherwise the twisting means of FIG. 2 are operated identically to the twist imparting means of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows another modification of the twist imparting means of the apparatus of FIG. 1. In this modification the upper and lower half of the housing 70 forming an inside air chamber is mounted to the supporting frame 18 as per FIG. 1. An annular air chamber 67 formed in said supporting frame is connected with air supply pipe 69 and from air chamber 67 by orifices 68 the air is injected inside the air chamber formed by housing 70. The mounted inside said housing 70 elongated tubular body 57 is journaled with its lower extended part 76 for rotation through the tubular shaft of crown gear 75 which is rotatably mounted in the lower half of housing 70. The journaled through said housing 70 tubular shaft of crown gear 7 5 is provided with the driving pulley '73 and lower part 76 of the elongated tubular twist imparting member 57 journalled through the hollow shaft of crown gear 75 is provided with a driving pulley 74. The wider upper tubular part of the elongated body 57 contains a roll 59 which axis 61 is mounted for rotation in the side walls of the elongated body 57. Onto the extending outside the elongated body 57 axis 61 a pinion bevel gear 60 is keyed in and mounted to engage crown bevel gear 75. Pinion bevel gear 72 is mounted on the outer side of axis 61 as an idler for balance only. On top of roll 59 another roll 58 is mounted for rotation on its non-revolving axis 62 which both flat ends are secured in corresponding slots provided in the upper part of the elongated body 57. The roll 58 is biased towards roll 59 for rotation as an idler with the driven roll 59 achieved by a rubber ring 6 3 secured and pressed downwardly by a protective cover 71 afiixed to the top of the elongated body 57 for rotation therewith. The cover 71 has an opening in its upper center corresponding with a similar opening in housing 70 for feed in of the material to he twisted by the rotating elongated body 57. The tubular inside shape of the elongated body is venturi like formed 66 to generate inside said elongated body 57 adequate suction force with the aid of the injected air via air jets 65 and 54- to aid the twist imparting operation and to forward downwardly the material twisted. By rotating pulleys 74 and 73 at a different speed the differential in rotation between crown gear 75 and bevel gear 60 will result in the axial rotation of the connected with gear 60 roll 59 together with biased to it roll 58. During this axial rotations the nip of roll 59 and 58 will engage the material fed into the elongated body 57 and forward it downwardly with the aid of the air suction created in the venturi 66 below said rolls which transaxial rotation achieved by the rotation of the whole elongated body 57 by pulley 74 will simultaneously impart a positive twist into material passing through the nip of the axially rotating rolls 59 58. It will be appreciated that this arrangement will enable positive adjustment of the tension while the material is subjected to twist between the first delivery rolls 1 and 2 as per FIG. 1 and second pickup and delivery rolls S9, 58 incorporated in the twisting assembly as per FIG. 3. This will also make it possible to subject the material during the twisting operations to any desirable positive stretching drawing action what will facilitate the production of finer count yarns as well as the imparting of hard positive twist to materials which will comprise stiffer or coarser fibers which might not render well to twist imparting by the pure air jet twisting assembly as per FIG. 1 or FIG. 2. Otherwise the twisting assembly as per FIG. 3 operates in the same manner as described in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a yarn production machine comprising a plurality of apparatuses as per FIG. 1 along the line AA which incorporates any suitable slitting arrangement 77 adapted to receive a continuous wide tape of material from a central supply source and slit it into a plurality of narrow tapes, guide and feed each tape to an apparatus as per FIG. 1 wherein each tape is twisted into a yarn, formed into a yarn package, each yarn package dofied and ejected onto plate 45 as per FIG. 1 all in a continuous automatic sequence of operations on one multispindle machine as per FIG. 4.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclu' sive property or privilege is claimed are defined as fol lows:

1. Apparatus for automatically transforming elongated material into a yarn package comprising in combination:

(a) a twist imparting device;

(b) means for delivering the elongated material to said twist miparting device;

(0) means for applying compressed air at high velocity into the twist imparting device to aid twisting of the elongated material and forwarding of the obtained yarn;

(d) a rotatable yarn collecting device positioned below said twist imparting device and comprising a yarn collecting inverted pot adapted to receive the forwarded yarn and means for imparting reciprocating movement to the yarn entering said inverted pot while said collecting device is rotated, so as to form a yarn package in the said pot; and

(e) automatic, pneumatically operating package doffing means adapted to dotf the formed package from the pot.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the twist imparting device comprises a rotatably mounted elongated body having an off center bore formed therein, said bore constituting a portion of the path of travel of said material and said elongated body also being provided with air jet orifices through which the compressed air at high velocity penetrates while said elongated body is rotated.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the off center bore has the form of a helical congested path of travel for the material passing therethrough to aid twist imparting therein.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the rotatably mounted elongated body is provided with a fan arrangement which is so mounted as to form, during rotation of said body, a continuous air flow in the OE center path of said rotating elongated body.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said twist imparting device is rotatably mounted inside a housing which completely encloses and supports said device and forms an air chamber into which a continuous air flow is introduced from a central air supply source, the air passing from said air chamber into the material path in the body of the twist imparting device through the air jet orifices provided for this purpose.

6. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the twist imparting device comprises a rotatably mounted tubular elongated body wherein two rolls are mounted one above the other for axial rotation within said body and transaxial rotation with said body to ensure by their axial movement a positive grip for drawing and forwarding the material which passes the nip thereof and to impart by their simultaneous transaxial rotation a positive twist to said material, said tubular elongated body also being provided with air jet orifices through which the compressed air at high velocity penetrates while said elongated body is rotated.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the two rolls are so mounted that the upper roll is an idler biased to the opposed lower roll, the axis of the latter being mounted in the wall of the surrounding tubular elongated body so that the two ends of said axis extend to the outside of the elongated body; two pinion bevel gears being mounted on said extending ends of the axis, one keyed onto the axis for rotation therewith and the other being an idler for balance only; a crown bevel gear provided with driving means and extending through the lower section of the tubular elongated body which is mounted for free rotation in the hollow shaft of said crown bevel gear; said lower section of the tubular elongated body also being provided with driving means for rotating said body; the crown gear being mounted to engage the two pinion gears to enable their axial rotation; thus axial and transaxial rotation of the two rolls is achieved by differentiation in rotation of the crown bevel gear driving means and the tubular elongated body driving means.

8. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said means for delivering the elongated material to said twist imparting device comprise forwarding rolls provided with a heating element.

9. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said means for imparting reciprocating movement to the yarn entering the inverted pot comprise: a first tubular member extending upwardly from the pot and connected to the latter for rotation therewith; a second tubular member mounted concentrically within said first tubular member; means for rotating said second tubular member at a different speed than that of said first tubular member; a hollow traversing member mounted for simultaneous rotation and reciprocation within said first tubular member; a first key extending from said first tubular member and engaging a longitudinal groove in said traversing member, whereby the latter is caused to rotate at the same speed as said first tubular member; a second key extending from said second tubular member and engaging a continuous double helical thread on the periphery ,of said traversing member, whereby said traversing member is caused to reciprocate relative to both said first and second tubular members and imparts reciprocating movement to the yarn entering the rotating inverted pot.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a third tubular member is mounted concentrically within said hollow traversing member and is connected with its upper portion to the second tubular member for rotation therewith, said third tubular member preventing interference and contact of the reciprocating traversing member with the flowing yarn.

11. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said means for imparting reciprocating movement to the yarn entering the inverted pot comprise: a first tubular member extending upwardly from the pot and connected to the latter for rotation therewith; a second tubular member mounted concentrically within said first tubular member; means for rotating said second tubular member at a different speed than that of said first tubular member; a hollow traversing member mounted for simultaneous rotation and reciprocation within said first tubular member; a first key extending from said second tubular member and engaging a longitudinal groove in said traversing member, whereby the latter is caused to rotate at the same speed as said second tubular member; a second key extending from said first tubular member and engaging a continuous double helical thread on the periphery of said traversing member, whereby said traversing member is caused to reciprocate relative to both said first and second tubular members and imparts reciprocating movement to the yarn entering the rotating inverted pot.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein a third tubular member is mounted concentrically within said hollow traversing member and is connected with its upper portion to the second tubular member for rotation therewith, said third tubular member preventing interference and contact of the reciprocating traversing member with the flowing yarn.

13. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the automatic, pneumatically operating package dofling means comprise: a housing extending above and about the inverted pot which has, in its circular top, a plurality of ports; a flexible annular diaphragm secured to said housing and overlaying the periphery of said circular top of the pot but normally out of contact with said top; and means for introducing compressed air between said housing and said pot so as to deform the diaphragm and place it in contact with said circular top thus forming a sealed chamber from which the air may escape only by Way of said ports, thereby exerting downward pressure on the upper surface of the yarn package within said pot and effecting the dofiing of said yarn package.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13, wherein a rigid annular diaphragm is secured by an expandable spring within said inverted pot and is supported by its inside tubular extension in such position as to create an air chamber inside said pot so that when a predetermined amount of compressed air enters therein by way of the ports in the top of said pot, equal and increased pressure over the whole surface of the rigid diaphragm is exerted and transmitted therefrom to the yarn package, thus effecting the downward movement of the rigid diaphragm and the doffing of the yarn package until said rigid diaphragm looses contact with the inside wall of the pot having a slight downward and outward slope, which results in the escape of air and elimination of air pressure, permitting the flexible and the rigid diaphragms to retract to their normal positions.

15. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said inverted pot is provided with a pot bottom which has an outer rim adapted to engage a groove at the lower edge of the pot wall to support the lower surface of the yarn package within said pot while unsupported except by said pot; and support means being provided to move said pot bottom upwardly to engage said rim with said groove and to lower said pot bottom and the yarn package positioned thereon when the dofiing of said yarn package takes place.

16. Apparatus according to claim 15, wherein a cutter is centrally mounted on said support means which are rotatably mounted to enable their rotation with said pot when contacting the latter while inserting said pot bottom or while dotting the yarn package; and said pot bottom has a central circular opening to enable contact of said cutter with the yarn entering the pot just before dofling of the yarn package, whereby separation of said yarn package from the yarn entering said inverted pot is achieved.

17. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein cutting means are further provided to separate the yarn package from the yarn entering the inverted pot at the time of doffing of said yarn package.

18. Apparatus according to claim 1, adapted to produce in one operation a package of textured stretch yarn, wherein said means for delivering the elongated material to said twist imparting device comprise a heating element for heat setting the twist, and the twist imparting and yarn collecting devices are provided with separate driving means which enable rotation of said twist imparting device at a higher speed than that of said yarn collecting device, whereby a higher desired heat set twist is first imparted to elongated material containing a thermoplastic resinous bonding agent by the twist imparting device and then part of said heat set twist is removed by the yarn collecting device, thus producing textured stretch yarn.

19. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein automatic ejecting means for the yarn package are further provided and are so mounted as to automatically eject said yarn package onto a side shelf upon doffing thereof.

20. In combination, a plurality of apparatuses according to claim 1, positioned side by side and forming a yarn production frame, said frame further comprising slitting means for slitting a continuous textile web into a plurality of continuous narrow tapes which are led to their respective apparatuses to be automatically transformed into yarn packages.

21. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein separate driving means are provided for the twist imparting device and for the rotatable yarn collecting device, enabling differentiation in the rotation speeds of said devices.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,787,883 4/1957 Gardella et al. 5776 X 2,843,996 7/1958 Gardella 5776 2,895,283 7/ 1959 Gardella 5776 X 2,900,782 8/1959 Bobkowitz 57-34 X 3,114,231 12/1963 Selling et al. 5776 X FRANK J. COHEN, Primary Examiner.

I. PETRAKES, Assistant Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFORMING ELONGATED MATERIAL INTO A YARN PACKAGE COMPRISING IN COMBINATION: (A) A TWIST IMPARTING DEVICE; (B) MEANS FOR DELIVERING THE ELONGATED MATERIAL TO SAID TWIST MIPARTING DEVICE; (C) MEANS FOR APPLYING COMPRESSED AIR AT HIGH VELOCITY INTO THE TWIST IMPARTING DEVICE TO AID TWISTING OF THE ELONGATED MATERIAL AND FORWARDING OF THE OBTAINED YARN; (D) A ROTATABLE YARN COLLECTING DEVICE POSITIONED BELOW SAID TWIST IMPARTING DEVICE AND COMPRISING A YARN COLLECTING INVERTED POT ADAPTED TO RECEIVE THE FORWARDED YARN AND MEANS FOR IMPARTING RECIPROCATING MOVEMENT TO THE YARN ENTERING SAID INVERTED POT WHILE SAID COLLECTING DEVICE IS ROTATED, SO AS TO FORM A YARN PACKAGE IN THE SAID POT; AND (E) AUTOMATIC, PNEUMATICALLY OPERATING PACKAGE DOFFING MEANS ADAPTED TO DOFF THE FORMED PACKAGE FROM THE POT. 